Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Another Turkish exhibitor, this one from Istambul, who presents gum. In this case the sometimes forgotten BUBBLE GUM.

In this blog I discuss many times about functional gum, stylish chewing gum with exzcellent designs, sophisticated products and innovations but I do not get many chance to talk about the gum that we all liked to chew when we were kids: the bubble gum. Even better when it comes with a sticker in it! It seems that this type of product (sometimes called “Bazooka style” because that was the first famous brand offering the format) is not interesting or trendy anymore. It is true that market figures have been showing a consistent decline of such products in Europe and North America, but it is good to remember that there are many brands in the world producing bubble gum for children and that this type still accounts for a significant share of the market.

So I am glad to talk today about PROGUM and their extensive range of bubble gums (also chewing gum), with different brands: Kango (5 chunck pack), You&me (5 chunck with tatoo), Powergum (jelly filled), Turbo (individual piece or multipack) and Safari (individual piece). You can see all their products in the link to their website. Have fun!

Another interesting company that exhibits in ISM for the second time is the Turkish “CEREMONY”.

They present sugarfree chewing gums with a very stylish and modern desing. Their main brand is “ 7 STICK” and also “CHIVITO”.

This new gum uses no aspartame, so it follows the trend of “clean label”, trying to avoid ingredients than may have a bad image in the general public. Maybe one day I should write a post about aspartame collecting all the data (positive and negative) that has been published about this intensive sweetener… and then another one about Stevia, which is quite an interesting case!

This new player in the Iranian chewing gum scene is the first time that exhibits in ISM. They produce different brands of chewing gum: Biodent, Nature Dent, Action.

The presentations are also diverse (dragees in fliptop box or ministicks in multipack), as the range of flavors, including some really excetional like “mojito”, “camomile”, “walnut oil” and “frankincense”!

Following my post from yesterday, I’d like to mention the “Nature Dent” brand, which claims to contain natural gum base (it is not clear to me what they mean by this) and no atificial flavors and colors, no aspartame or sucralose. No additives or preservatives and GMO Free. The gum base is “of course biodegradable”, which is very interesting. So the product is claimed to be 100% natural and organic.

This follows the trend already mentioned of “clean label”. More and more consumers worldwide don’t like to have those “weird” names of ingredients written the label of the product (antioxidant, artificial sweetener, …) and the manufacturers, of course, need to adapt their products to this demand.

“Action” brand turns around the idea of Energy, Excitement and Dynamism.

“Biodent” is the widest brand, sugarfree and with many flavors and packagings. There are two sub-brands named “Stardent” and “Vitadent” and all them claim oral care properties. The presentation of those products is really impressive, with a very smart design and bright colors. Special mention to the printing in Braile in the “Biodent mojito”

One of the big trends in the food industry (not only in chewing gum) is the “natural” claim. The legislation about what can be claimed as “natural”, or other terms as “organic”, “bio”, … differs from country to country. This makes the tasks involved in the development of those products more tricky.

In any case, during last ISM was presented what is claimed to be “the first organic gum ever”. The claim is supported by the USDA organic certificate and also the European one.

The chewing gum, presented in coated dragees (17 pieces in a zipperbag, 24 grams) and uses natural chicle from the sapotilla trees in Central America. It contains to no synthetics, no artificial colors or flavors and no preservatives. Of course, it is sugarfree. It is produced in Tunisia, but the company that commercializes it is a Danish one, named Ökolife. (for more info go to the link to their website).

In this post I will allow myself to move outside the world of chewing gum and jump into the larger “food industry” field.

After the eye-opening experience I had during last ISM, and that I discussed in previous posts, about the production of 3D chewing gum, I’ve done a bit of research on internet on the 3D Food printing matter. I have found a few interesting things that I’d like to share with you.

For sure this field (making food with a 3D printer) is complete novelty in all aspects. However there are restaurants that are already using this technology. I found one not far from home:

MIRAMAR in the Costa Brava, about 100km north of Barcelona (and not far from where the world-famous Ferran Adria’s “El Bulli” was located) is one of them. Miramar’s Chef Paco Pérez, with 2 Michelin stars experiements and develops 3D dishes.

This is a link to an interesting article in the New York Times that discusses some of the issues and controversies which curound this fascinating new paradigma. Will this machines become part of a common kitchen? What new possibilites do they offer in terms of tastes, textures, ingredients and composition of the food…?

Finally, a link to the website of Foodini the printer used by Paco Pérez, where you can side excellent pictures of 3D food and discover more about the machine. I reccommend the FAQs section!

As I mentioned before, the 3D chewing gum printing has been one of the most interesting presentations of last ISM. Please, check the different links that are included in this post, as they will take you to really exciting information!

The company who developed it, WACKER, had the printer in their stand and generated a great exposure in the media for this. We all could see how a gum was “printed” in front of us. Of course the concept is only a prototype now, with no industrial application. But for sure there will be more and more development on this field.

On the other hand, ProSweets exhibition, which runs parallel to the ISM and where we can find the suppliers to the industry (machinery, ingredients, packaging, …), has been significantly smaller this year. The reason is that most of the machinery suppliers where not there exhibiting because this year in May there will be the 2017 Edition of INTERPACK, in Düsseldorf. This has been the traditional big show for the machinery suppliers, so it seems that keeping both (ProSweets and Interpack) in the same year was not convenient for them.